Resurface
by xybolic
Summary: "It was customary to eat poultry on Coalition Day, a holiday that could be traced back to more than two hundred years ago. Older fairies had said that it was initially called Friendship Day, until humans moved to change its name. The story behind the occasion, they said, was the unlikely alliance between a fairy and a human." Post-TLG.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Dian**

It was customary to eat poultry on Coalition Day, a holiday that could be traced back to more than two hundred years ago. Older fairies had said that it was initially called Friendship Day, until humans moved to change its name. The story behind the occasion, they said, was the unlikely alliance between a fairy and a human. It was unbelievable then and most certainly unbelievable now if not for what remained intact in the historical section of the library system. Why poultry? No one was quite sure, but if you asked the older fairies, they'd just giggle.

Tonight, the skies of Dublin were unusually clear and desolate, and those who were up and about travelled with ease. Such was the case for a certain elf who zipped across aerial traffic without much flurry, her wings a glittering blur on her back. Her destination was a private university up north that sprawled closely to the border of Neo-Neath. It was well-known for being the first university to accept both human and fairy students, operating for twenty-four hours every day, as well as for spearheading the Eco-Restoration.

On the streets below, Celyn could see delivery trucks rushing from one store to another to accommodate the annual demand of humans for gallinaceous meals. She grimaced. Disgusting, she thought and brought her attention back to her destination. The Monocom that covered her left eye showed the university coming close, but it couldn't compute the exact distance. It was an old model – decrepit and often unreliable – but she preferred it over the new ones inserted under your lids.

She had been woken up at five in the afternoon by an emergency phone call from someone claiming to be a university representative, asking for her assistance with a case. That was it. No other details, besides the coordinates. It piqued her curiosity, and now she landed on curb across a great glass dome filled with leaves, some luminous and glittering; she'd need to have her DNA temporarily encoded in the police system for the shield surrounding the building to allow her entry.

At least that was usually the routine.

Celyn scoped the façade. Because of Coalition Day, the place was closed, but she didn't think the projection on the glass door, "Closed until further notice," served as a reminder of the holiday. There weren't any officers, any shield – there was nothing to indicate there was a case of any sort, save for a suspicious hovercraft docked by the river bank, its machine still on. Illegal. She was thinking about issuing it a ticket, but remembered she was not a police officer anymore. Still, she should at least tell the owner off. Her meeting with the university representative wasn't until half-an-hour.

Before she could knock on the window, however, it slid down, and a whinny greeted her. "Don't. That's an experimental solar panel, and it's very expensive." The centaur's irritated face changed to a look of shock. "H – " He cleared his throat. "Oh, Little. You're early. I'm Foaly, and I contacted you," he said, holding out a hand. "I invented that Monocom, by the way. Didn't think I'd see one again outside a museum."

Foaly. He was a technician for the police, but in all her ten years as an officer, Celyn never got a chance to meet him – until tonight, now that she had already quit to go solo as a Private Investigator. Why he contacted her, she was probably about to find out.

She made to shake his hand, and as their skins touched, there was a tiny burst of electricity. Harmless, but enough to surprise her. She withdrew her hand. "What was that?"

"What?"

Celyn tried to shake his hand again. This time, nothing happened. "Nothing. Nice to meet you. Where's the police? Why aren't you with them?"

"First, let's make one thing clear: I'm retired" he said, scowling. "Second: The police are not to be involved. At all. We need their skill, but not human meddling, and that's why I got you."

"Why – "

"I'm not finished. Third: Those bionic wings, detachable?"

Celyn nodded. "Drunken night at college. I woke up like this. Not much regret, but I did fail one final exam because of the shoulder pain. I was low on magic." As she said this, she noticed Foaly's expression soften.

"You must've been a riot in college. Anyway, step aside. I'm getting off this damned thing."

"Right. So, why me? And if you're only a representative, who's the client?"

"Artemis Fowl the Third," said Foaly, trying to dismount from the wobbly vehicle with difficulty. Celyn caught his hand as one of his hooves slipped on a particularly muddy patch on the bank. "Thanks."

"Artemis Fowl?"

"You must've heard of him from history books? Well, the third one is his descendant. She's your client. You're going to meet her soon." They walked back to the greenhouse, and he pressed a palm on the door, which opened. He led the way. "Welcome to Pole University. First university to be open to both humans and fairies, and first to study about and produce bionic trees. Trees at the central district? Created here."

Along the greenhouse path they walked through were different and diverse types of plants. It seemed like the entire flora of Ireland grew in this giant dome, studied and modified.

"I helped with that one." Foaly pointed at a tree with a glowing, metallic trunk. "I'm not really a part of the academe. I come here, mostly, as a family friend to the Fowls. Long history, but barely mentioned in textbooks."

They reached a corridor with vines creeping up the walls. Foaly clopped on to a laboratory door, and Celyn followed. She thought she might meet Miss Fowl here in a dramatic fashion; the name Artemis Fowl gave her that idea. Instead, the room was empty. It was sleek and white, with two long tables taking up most of the space. Stools lined up with equal spacing, but one was toppled over on the floor next to a dried-up puddle of blood.

Celyn inhaled sharply. She could never get quite used to the thought of murder.

"The victim's a troll," said Foaly. "The first troll to make it to college. The first to be educated, actually, and she was pretty smart, too, I heard. The scene was discovered by a professor this morning. Right now, she's unconscious at the Infirmary."

"We've never met before…" Celyn took her eyes off the blood and stared at the centaur. "So why me?"

"I try to get to know everyone using my inventions. I have the police system's data here." He tapped his temple twice with a smirk.

"And why me?"

"Outstanding officer, but quit too early to start a P.I. service. for the poor. You have a golden, pure heart, I'm assuming. Didn't like how humans do their police work. Trustworthy."

Celyn reddened.

"Artemis is coming in a bit," he said, tapping invisible buttons in mid-air.

Artemis Fowl the Third, Celyn was shocked to learn, barely out of her teenage years. She was a jolly sort of girl, only a few inches taller than Celyn, who stood at exactly one meter. But teenager or not, friends with a centaur or not, Celyn was not without her doubts. After greetings were made, she frowned and straightforwardly asked: "So you want me to help you prove your university's not involved? Or any human?"

"No!" said Artemis, shaking her head. "I want to get at the bottom of this to make sure the university is safe for other fairies."

Celyn glared then relented, sighing. "Okay."

"Should you accept this case, you will be allowed to occupy a room in the faculty dormitory. Also, allowed to roam around the campus. I will give you an ID to access even the remotest places for your investigation. But, you will have a partner - ah! He's here!" Artemis excused herself and stepped out of the room for a minute. She came back with a tall man behind her. "This is..."

"Dian," said the man, and Celyn noticed his eyes, blue and hazel.

She inhaled sharply.


	2. Chapter 2

_Drawing of Celyn here: rayjinar dot tumblr dot com/post/117773446504/resurface_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Halfling**

Heterochromia wasn't unusual with humans, but it was for fairies. An eye injury could be easily healed with a small burst of magic; otherwise, it was a case of something else – some sort of mutation. But with Dian, what struck Celyn was the exact shade of ice-blue on his right eye and deep hazel on his left, too similar….

It took Celyn a moment to respond: "Dian…?"

"Simply Dian. I'd like to separate my police-work from my main career. I suppose you're Celyn Little."

"Oh, so you're police then?"

"Not officially. I do cases for them from time to time. "

The corner of her mouth twitched at that. Sure, she worked with the police from time to time unofficially, too, but she wasn't comfortable with a human doing it as well. Just how similar was his morals with the police force?

And his eyes. Celyn couldn't stop looking at his eyes.

"Mr. Dian is a family friend," said Artemis the Third, "as much as Mr. Foaly's is."

"And I'm pretty trustworthy, if I do say so myself," said Foaly with a grin.

"Fine," said Celyn. She had to take the word of the centaur, a fellow fairy. And a fellow fairy was a victim of a murder attempt. She shouldn't dwell on biases (she had every right to dwell on, she thought) for now. "Fine."

Dian smirked. Celyn would very much like to wipe off that smirk from his pasty face.

She turned away from them and squatted down, pulling a glove from her pocket and fitting it snuggly on her right hand.

Artemis the Third clapped her hands together. "Now that's settled, I'm going back to my office. Minors aren't allowed in the crime scene, and it's thirty minutes past curfew." She gave Celyn a pat on the shoulder and waved the man and centaur goodbye. "Please take care of them, Mr. Foaly."

Celyn wondered how a teenager could run a university but not get out past curfew.

"No human meddling, my ass," she muttered, but Dian heard her.

He sighed. "I understand your resentment."

Celyn laughed. "No, you don't."

"All right, all right, we're not off to a good start," Foaly said before Celyn or Dian could say anything more. He scratched his head a bit. "The victim is Basil. She chose the name herself, because her parents weren't capable of naming her. She is nine-feet tall, weighs three-hundred pounds – ish. She's a third-year student, majoring in Art Studies. Apparently, she was studying here for her Nature and Art exam.

"What do you think of the scene, Little?"

"It's too soon, with too little data, to draw a conclusion."

"I'll have to disagree," said Dian. "We can gather something, at least, from what little data we have."

Celyn rubbed her temple.

Dian stood beside her. "Look at that chair. It is toppled over, but the crime was committed inches away. The glass instruments, too, were shattered on purpose, but that top shelf is too high for most people."

She straightened up. "Unless it's a really tall human," she said sarcastically. Why was this man getting on her nerves?

"That's true, but not during a fight of some sort. If there ever was any."

"Right. I don't think any human could get to her. She's a troll."

Foaly touched his chin. "Well, back in the day, there was a human who was able to."

"How long ago was 'back in the day'?"

"Two hundred or so years."

"Is it, by any chance," Dian said, "a butler? There was a mention in an essay, but I can't find any reference elsewhere."

"Oh, yeah, Butler. I was there. Sort of. Quite a feat, to be honest. Would mean more damage to the place."

"More than a tumbled chair and shattered instruments – damage to the building itself."

Celyn nodded. "So someone set up this room to look like a struggle happened. But why?"

"What are they hiding? I'm assuming the criminal's identity. You cannot hope to defeat a troll in a fight. There is a good chance, then, the criminal is someone familiar to Miss Basil. And Miss Basil takes classes on boxing, too, for PE. There is no chance, therefore, to take her unless her guards were down."

His fists were clenched tightly, Celyn noticed.

"We need to interview people who knew her, close to her," she said. "Check their alibis."

"I'll do it," he said. He pursed his lips. There was darkness in his eyes.

* * *

"Halfling!"

"Yeah, halfling!"

There was derisive laughter coming on all sides.

Hands covered eyes.

* * *

Celyn traveled back to her flat to gather a few of her things and then back to the university. Foaly led her to the faculty dormitory, complaining about the stairs on the way, how it accommodated only bipeds. Celyn rolled her eyes and smiled. Somehow, this old centaur amused her. He then talked about the case in more detail, and Celyn set the Monocam on record, while half-listening.

Dian seemed to know more than he let on, she thought.

* * *

_I'll say it now: I suck at crime and mystery, and that's not gonna be the focus of this fic. I'm sorry._


End file.
